Infant oral soothing devices are thought to provide comfort to infants by providing them the opportunity to act on oral tendencies such as sucking, chewing, and generally placing things in their mouths. Such soothing devices include pacifiers and teethers, and are additionally thought to actually reduce pain and provide delight, with teethers especially comforting to infants when they are teething. In addition, it is known to combine pacifiers with plush toys intended to provide amusement and/or comfort to infants. Such combined pacifier-toy devices include those disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,740 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0234887.
While such pacifier-toy combinations appear to demonstrate potential benefits, there remain concerns about them. For example, in some combination devices the toy and the pacifier are separable for cleaning and independent use, but too easily so such that the toy and/or pacifier can too easily fall to the ground and become dirty, or such that certain coupling components present a choking hazard. And in some other combination devices the plush toy and the plastic pacifier are not separable, but then they cannot be separately cleaned as needed for proper sanitary conditioning.
Accordingly, it can be seen that needs exist for improvements in combination pacifier-toy devices to provide for ease of cleaning, sanitary use, and safety of use. It is to the provision of solutions meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.